


Moonlight into Ashes

by threedices



Category: Bleach
Genre: Aizen Sosuke Being a Bastard, Aizen Sousuke Dies, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Character Turned Into Vampire, Fade to Black, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, M/M, Melancholy, Mild Blood, Minor Kurosaki Karin & Kurosaki Yuzu & Urahara Kisuke, Minor Violence, POV Ichimaru Gin, Sad with a Hopeful Ending, Vampire Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24057409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threedices/pseuds/threedices
Summary: Gin should know better than showing interest into Aizen's newest pet, after losing Rangiku.Ichigo draws him anyway.Gin and the other regain their freedom, but at what price?
Relationships: Ichimaru Gin & Kurosaki Karin & Kurosaki Yuzu, Ichimaru Gin & Matsumoto Rangiku, Ichimaru Gin/Kurosaki Ichigo
Kudos: 11





	Moonlight into Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, this is pretty sad and only vaguely shippy, but the charatcers wouldn't cooperate. Have fun.

Gin takes pity on the kid, just enough to count.

He has enough fire to survive and not enough strength to free himself.

But Ichigo is a survivor, Gin can see that.  
Maybe he has a chance.

Aizen picked him up after the kid got tangled up in the Thirteen Clans' war business.

Now the boy has a bit more freedom than Hirako and Urahara, but not much.

Ichigo has taken to watching the moon and Gin has taken to watching Ichigo.

It will get both of them in trouble soon, but Gin is feeling reckless.

Grimmjow prowls, ready for a fight and almost looking protective.  
Whatever deal Ichigo has made with him has made him free the girl Starrk brought in on Aizen’s orders.

Grimmjow has already paid for it and needed a week to hide himself and lick his wounds, away from the coven.

Gin never saw the girl again, so he thinks he might be no longer interesting to Aizen, now that Ichigo is here.  
That, or she is dead.

It’s a curiosity that gos nowhere.  
Gin will not look for her, nor will he ask Aizen.  
That way lies pain and punishment.

Aizen only likes his pets just clever enough to be interesting.  
If they go any further, like Urahara, he makes sure they regret it.

Urahara has certainly learnt his lessons.

Gin has always been slightly surprised at how willing Urahara was to draw Aizen’s ire.  
It should have been enough that Aizen slaughtered his own coven and took his leader, Hirako, as a price, to warn Urahara away from playing games with a man like that, but it seems Urahara was more careless than he looked.

Now he pays for it with his freedom and the memory of all those he lost.

Aizen does not spare humans and neither does he fear the older vampires like himself.

Gin is feeling restless and melancholy today.  
It reminds him of Rangiku, that red hair always in sight and near Aizen.

Aizen turned her, and then later Gin when he sought Aizen out.  
Only for revenge, but Ran would have never understood.

Someone got her, a decade or so ago, but Gin still remembers.

Just like Urahara and Hirako will always remember their dead covens.

Like Ichigo will always miss his human family.

It wasn’t even Aizen, giving Gin reason to hate him more.  
It was a Hunter, thinking he should put the girl child vampire out of her misery.

Gin heard about it three years later, when he had the freedom to check up on what was going on with her.

He left his contact without a word, without looking back and went to pick a fight until he was exhausted and full of blood.

He thinks Ichigo might feel a little like that, every day, because his sisters grow older every second he is not with them and one day they will die.  
And Ichigo will have to live on without them.

Maybe that’s what makes Gin step forward, out of the shadows, and into the moonlight Ichigo is bathed in.

Ichigo barely reacts, only his eyes idly seeking out Gin’s.

Gin shrugs to the unspoken question and settles opposite him in the wide window seat.

Leaning back like that, it almost looks like Ichigo is offering his throat.

For a mere second, Gin is tempted, curious what Aizen would do to him.  
If Ichigo would thank him for his death, if Gin made it quick.  
But it would be less interesting with Ichigo here and Gin has never been kind (only lonely, vengeful and petty).

So Gin settles himself, turning his head just so that Ichigo could take a chance and rip out his throat if he wanted to.  
Not that he is as fast as Gin, but he might be stronger.  
Gin might lose.

He could try.

When he glances at Ichigo, there is a wry smile on the boy’s lips.

He says nothing, but Gin knows he saw the bait, but didn’t take it.

Gin feels a certain kind of satisfaction in being right, and in knowing the boy is clever.  
Not that Aizen keeps any other pets.  
It is nice to have it confirmed, though, that the boy knows a futile fight when he sees the opportunity Gin gave him.

Still, Gin wonders for a split second, how it would feel to press Ichigo against the floor, against a wall, or how his lips might taste in a kiss.

With a scoff and a smirk Gin shakes his head.  
He needs to get laid if he gets so stupid to want to play with Aizen’s current favourite pet.

“What's so funny?”

Gin looks over.

No change of expression, but there is a small spark in Ichigo’s eyes now.  
Not quite anger, but a bit of offence, indignation.

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

Gin shrugs. Contemplates. How much of the truth will get him killed? Will the kid even tell Aizen?  
But he seems to know and find out what he wants anyway, so.

Gin lets his smile change.  
A bit sharper, a bit more invitation.

“I was just thinking how I need to get laid again.”

There, out in the open now. Let the kid make of it what he wants.

Almost an offer, without being one.

The boy huffs a laugh. “If you want to. Why not?”

It’s far from a clearcut invitation, but Gin is remembering Ran too much lately, and that she never grew old. Not even as old as the boy.  
How Gin was ready to kill one of the most dangerous vampires among the clans for her.  
And that she will never know why he left her behind.

All of that makes it hard to remember why he stays and doesn’t just run, tries to get as far away as he can, before he is as morally bankrupt as Aizen.

In the end, Gin can’t remember a single reason not to kiss Ichigo.

He leans forward, slow like a human would.

Ichigo could leave or turn his head, even if it would offer his neck to Gin, or push Gin off if he wanted to.  
He is one of the strongest of Aizen’s coven, only second to Aizen himself.

Ichigo doesn’t move.

Gin lips slide over his and Ichigo heaves an empty sigh in the shared space between them.

Gin feels equal parts too hollow and too full and just wants to forget.

Against Ichigo’s temple, he says, “Let’s run away.”

Ichigo’s smile twists into a broken thing. “I can’t. Can’t leave them.”

Gin hums against his neck. Kisses there once, bites into the cold flesh, a soft press of teeth and feels Ichigo arch off the windowsill, into his body.

It’s more life in either of them than they had for ages.

Gin drags Ichigo off with him, into his room for an illusion of privacy.

Aizen will find out, but until he does, they can make something of their time, of their lives.

Having Ichigo on his bed, unnecessary decoration as it is, with his hair spilt over the pillowcase, makes something ache in Gin.

It’s less like sex than it usually feels like.

He doesn’t make Ichigo scream, but only because Ichigo is always so quiet.  
But it still feels like a victory, because there is nothing controlled in how Ichigo moves, abrupt and gasping like he needs the air they no longer breathe.

Ichigo holds on to him, afterwards, with all the desperate, deliberate strength needed to keep Gin at his side and in bed.

Gin allows it, because he is growing tired of fighting.  
(Sadness and loneliness will eat him alive, before Aizen ever grows weary of him and decides to tears his throat out, surely.)

Gin whispers the only promise he can make into Ichigo’s collarbone. “If I ever get out, I will look after them.”

It's barely enough, but Ichigo relaxes and his grip loosens.

Before they close their eyes and pretend to rest, Ichigo kisses the crown of Gin’s hair.  
“Thank you.”

It’s the last thing Ichigo ever says to him.

When Gin wakes the next night, Ichigo is gone and the lair is silent.

Something empty nestles into Gin’s chest and it’s not just waking alone.

The loss of a body, Ichigo’s body, beside him would not unsettle him.  
Leaving Gin when and if he so pleases, is the only freedom Ichigo has left after all.

Gin is not angry or especially heartbroken over it. Waking beside Ichigo might have been nice, but he understands.

Gin makes his way out of his room and immediately smells the wet rot of graveyard earth.

It’s the stench a vampire leaves behind when it dies.

The older ones, like Aizen, smell more like ashes and dust.

Gin doesn’t like the thought that comes to him first.  
Ichigo is one of the youngest vampires of Aizen’s coven.

He surprises himself with the rush of raw emotion (loss, fear, anger)that makes him feel.  
The last of his survival instincts weighted against his desire to rip Aizen to shreds.

Aizen’s demise wins.

As always.

It’s not as if he has that much to live for.

Ichigo’s sisters will just have to fend for themselves. They are probably doing fine.

Gin steels himself, reigning his hatred in, behimd his usual mask, and tries to look mildly concerned, but mostly curious.

The smell gets stronger the further he goes.

The main hall of the lair is a battlefield when he reaches it.

Broken furniture, blood and gauges like a beast tried to tear down the walls.

In the midst, ashes and a half rotted corpse, still smoking like from walking into sunlight.

Gin doesn’t puke, but it’s shocking to see.

Ichigo must have finally decided to fight Aizen.

Why?

He seeks out the other pets and finds them chained as usual.

They know enough to piece together a story.

Ichigo challenged Aizen to a fight for the leadership and the freedom of the coven.  
They went to duel in the main hall, Aizen indulgent and amused, leaving his pets chained and unfed behind.  
Nothing they weren’t used to, of course.

Urahara is the one doing most of the talking. He has not been the focus of Aizen’s attention for quite as long as Hirako, or even as intensely.  
Gin thinks he might even be able to cobble something of a life together, if let go and left to his own devices.

Urahara is as stricken as Hirako that Ichigo died, but the way he looks around the hall tells Gin he thinks the same thing.  
The openings in the walls and ceiling look deliberate.  
Ichigo stalled, to drag Aizen down with him, being the only one who could give Aizen a challenge.  
The fight dragged on long enough for the sun to rise.

The others, even Gin, would only ever be something Aizen toyed with, for his amusement, and he wouldn’t have gotten so engrossed that he forgot sunrise.

Urahara and Hirako stand together, not quite clinging to each other, but close enough.

Gin was not willing to give up Ichigo’s remains to them or leave him to rot in Aizen's grave.

They were Aizen’s long enough not to fight him on it.  
Though just barely.  
Ichigo burned loyalty into those he met, even as defeated as he was at the end.

“I will bring him back to his sisters,” Gin tells them.

Urahara nods and drags Hirako away, though Gin feels them watching him, even after they have supposedly left.

They will make sure he does as he says, even if it kills them.  
Loyalty to Ichigo doesn’t end with his death.

Gin can understand. He would still have broken them if they had tried to take this duty away from him.

He needs to seek out the Kurosaki sisters. It would be easier if he let Urahara and Hirako accompany him, because at least Urahara has some knowledge of Ichigo’s past life, but seeing them as Aizen’s pets for so long has not made Gin inclined to follow their lead.

He is not without his own means and ends and finding Ichigo’s sisters will only be a matter of time.

They still live in the same town Ichigo was caught in.  
He realises he didn’t lose Urahara and Hirako, either. They found Ichigo’s sisters before him.  
A small setback.

The girls are young, but nearly a decode older than Ran when Aizen turned her.

The thought of Rangiku hits Gin like a punch in the gut and makes him slightly softer towards the girls when he explains.

Yuzu has light hair and a kind, gentle face marred by sadness.

Karin has her brother’s lost and recovered fire and sharp eyes. Her hair is dark as her eyes are cold.

They are wary and rightfully grieving.

He lets them have the urn with nearly no reluctance.

Urahara hovers behind them.

It’s more trust than Gin would have expected. Maybe Urahara knew the whole family better than Gin thought.

The girls share a look. It’s Yuzu who says, “thank you, Gin-san. Would you like to come to the funeral?”

Gin is as taken aback as Urahara looks.  
Neither of them says a word.  
Aizen made all of them careful and wary.

Gin finds himself nodding before he has completely thought it through.

He smiles at them, before he steps back. “Don’t invite any strange men inside.”

Karin scoff. “Like yourself, you mean?” It has almost a bit of humour under the sharpness.

Gin laughs. It’s the first time he has laughed in a long while. “Exactly like me. Or Urahara. Or worse.”

He can’t help the little jab towards Urahara, but the man only looks grimly resolute.  
“I promised Kurosaki-san.”

Gin lets his smile fall, eyes open, tone serious. “As did I.”

He leaves, before Urahara can ask questions, his steps sure and silent through the shadows of twilight.

Nearly two weeks later, the sisters hold the funeral.

It’s late and overcast enough that more than a few of the unwilling remnants of Aizen’s coven can turn up and not burn to ashes.

Gin waits until they have all left, before he leaves his own offering behind.

A small talisman, in the form of a strawberry, with the Kanji for Ichigo’s name.  
Gin had to look them up first, having to charm and enthrall more people than he initially expected, and then pay a witch to make it.  
He owes a favour now, to be collected later, but that was worth it.

Gin stays for a few more nights in Ichigo’s town, before preparing to leave.

He doesn’t expect the sisters to turn up at his doorstep on the night the prepares to go.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You brought him back to us, thank you.” Yuzu bows and offers him a small bag.

Gin can smell the blood on them both without even trying.

Karin has watched his face for clues, it seems, when he turns to her. “Urahara says that you helped Ichi-nii.”  
She swallows and they both breathe shakily.

Gin shrugs, suddenly wary of tears. “I didn’t do much.”

“If you ever want to—”

“Don’t invite me. You don’t know me.” He tries to make it sharp and harsh, but he's ot sure he succeeds, because the girls relax.

They share a look.

"You are always welcome in our home," Yuzu says.

When Gin hisses, displeased, Karin laughs at him.

A small short sound, but the smile it leaves behind is sure and sincere.  
Yuzu smiles wider at him.

“Ichi-nii has good taste in people, we trust him.” Karin tells him with a shrug.

They leave and Gin doesn’t feel so sure anymore if he wants to leave or not.  
They remind him, but it feels more soothing now than painful.

Maybe that is the peace he is learning to make with himself.

Gin decides to stay for a while and decide later.

That’s what he always tells himself.  
(He's a liar, but he tries to forget that.) He watches Ichigo’s sisters, guards them, and finally accepts their invitation.

Always telling himself the same thing.

Tomorrow, tomorrow he’ll leave.

He never does.

After three generations, Gin realizes he has become the weird uncle with a blood and biting fetish when Yuzu's grandkids bringhim their blood they've drawn themselves in to go cups, and Karin's son, the dentist, lectures him on dental hygiene and makes him an appointment.


End file.
